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Lincoln man lost nearly $3,000 in home-loan scam

A 41-year-old Lincoln man recently lost nearly $3,000 in a phone scam purportedly involving a home loan.

Lincoln police said the man told them that he received a phone call Wednesday that he had been approved for a $10,000 loan to purchase a home. The man told police that he had recently applied for home loans, so he believed that the call was legitimate.

As part of the scam, the caller told the man to purchase $1,000 in Visa gift cards at a drugstore, police said. The caller had the man read the gift-card codes over the phone, police said.

The caller then told the man to spend $1,000 on additional Visa cards, police said.

The man said his bank alerted him that he appeared to be a victim of a scam, police said. The man told his bank to authorize the transaction anyway, police said.

The caller told the man to purchase $900 in gift cards from a discount store, but the man’s bank declined the purchase, police said.

The man lost an additional $842 from his account after possibly giving the scam-caller his account number before bank officials stepped in, police said.